[-49-] After accomplishing this and bidding Domitius arrange the rest he came to Bithynia and from there to Greece, whence he sailed for Italy, collecting all the way great sums of money from everybody, and upon every pretext, just as before. On the one hand he levied all that individuals had promised in advance to Pompey, and on the other he asked for still more from outside sources, bringing some accusation against the places to justify his act. All votive offerings of Heracles at Tyre he removed, because the people had received the wife and child of Pompey when they were fleeing. Many golden crowns, also, commemorative of victories, he took from potentates and kings. This he did not out of malice but because his expenditures were on a vast scale and because he was intending to lay out still more upon his legions, his triumph, and everything else that could add to his brilliance. Briefly, he showed himself a money-getter, declaring that there were two things which created and protected and augmented sovereignties,—soldiers and money; and that these two were dependent upon each other. By proper support armies were kept together, and this support was gathered by the use of arms: and if either the one or the other were lacking, the second of them would be overthrown at the same time.

[-50-] These were ever his ideas and this his talk upon such matters. Now it was to Italy he hurried and not to Africa, although the latter region had been made hostile to him, because he learned of the disturbances in the City and feared that they might get beyond his control. However, as I said, he did no harm to any one, except that there too he gathered large sums of money, partly in the shape of crowns and statues and the like which he received as gifts, and partly by borrowing not only from individual citizens but also from cities. This name (of borrowing) he applied to levies of money for which there was no other reasonable excuse; his exactions from his creditors were none the less unjustified and acts of violence, since he never intended to pay these loans. What he said was that he had spent his private possessions for the public good and it was for that reason he was borrowing. Wherefore, when the multitude demanded that there should be an annulment of debts, he would not do it, saying; "I too am heavily involved." He was easily seen to be wresting away the property of others by his position of supremacy, and for this his companions as well as others disliked him. These men had bought considerable of the confiscated property, in some cases for more than its real value, in the hope of retaining it free of charge, but found themselves compelled to pay the full price.

[-51-] To such persons he paid no attention. However to a certain extent he did court the favor of the people as individuals. To the majority he allowed the interest they were owing, an act by which he had incurred the enmity of Pompey, and he released them from all rent for one year, up to the sum of five hundred denarii; furthermore he raised the valuations on goods in which it was allowable according to law for loans to be paid to their value at the time of payment, and this after having considerably lowered the price for the populace on all confiscated property. By these acts he gained the attachment of the people; and he won the affection of the members of his party and those who had fought for him also. For upon the senators he bestowed priesthoods and offices,—some which lasted for the rest of that year and some which extended to the following season. In order to reward a larger number he appointed ten praetors for the next year and more than the customary number of priests. To the pontifices and the augurs, of whom he was one, and to the so-called Fifteen he added one each, although he really wished to take all the priesthoods himself, as had been decreed. To the knights in his army and to the centurions and subordinate officers he gave among other rights the important privilege of choosing some of their own number for the senate to fill the places of those who had perished.

[-52-] The unrest of the troops, however, made trouble for him. They had expected to obtain great things, and finding their rewards not less, to be sure, than their deserts, but inferior to their expectations, they raised an outcry. The most of them were in Campania, being destined to sail on ahead to Africa. These nearly killed Sallust, who had been appointed praetor so as to recover his senatorial office, and when escaping them he set out for Rome to lay before Caesar what was being done, a number followed him, sparing no one on their way, and killed among others whom they met two senators. Caesar as soon as he heard of their approach wished to send his guard against them, but fearing that it too might join the uprising he remained quiet until they reached the suburbs. While they waited there he sent to them and enquired what wish or what need had brought them. Upon their replying that they would tell him face to face he allowed them to enter the city unarmed, save as to their swords; these they were regularly accustomed to wear in the city, and they would not have submitted to laying them aside at this time. [-53-] They insisted a great deal upon the toils and dangers they had undergone and said a great deal about what they had hoped and what they declared they deserved to obtain. Next they asked to be released from service and were very clamorous on this point, not because they wished to return to private life,—they were far from anxious for this since they had long become accustomed to the gains from warfare—but because they thought they would scare Caesar in this way and accomplish anything whatever, since his projected invasion of Africa was close at hand. He, however, made no reply at all to their earlier statements, but said merely: "Quirites,[81] what you say is right: you are weary and worn out with wounds," and then at once disbanded them all as if he had no further need of them, promising that he would give the rewards in full to such as had served the appointed time. At these words they were struck with alarm both at his attitude in general and because he had called them Quirites and not soldiers; and humiliated, in fear of suffering some calamity, they changed their stand, and addressed him with many entreaties and offers, promising that they would join his expedition as volunteers and would carry the war through for him by themselves. When they had reached this stage and one of their leaders also, either on his own impulse or as a favor to Caesar, had said a few words and presented a few petitions in their behalf, the dictator answered: "I release both you who are here present and all the rest whose years of service have expired. I really have no further need of you. Yet even so I will pay you the rewards, that no one may say that I after using you in dangers later showed myself ungrateful, even though you were unwilling to join my campaign while perfectly strong in body and able in other respects to prosecute a war." [-54-] said for effect, for they were quite indispensable to him. He then assigned them all land from the public holdings and from his own, settling them in different places, and separating them considerable distances from one another, to the end that they should not inspire their neighbors with terror nor (dwelling apart) be ready for insurrection. Of the money that was owing them, large amounts of which he had promised to give them at practically every levy, he offered to discharge a part immediately and to supply the remainder with interest in the near future. When he had said this and so enthralled them that they showed no sign of boldness but expressed their gratitude, he added: "You have all that is due you from me, and I will compel no one of you to endure campaigns any longer. If, however, any one wishes of his own accord to help me subjugate what remains, I will gladly receive him." Hearing this they were overjoyed, and all alike were anxious to join the new expedition.

[-55-]Caesar put side the turbulent spirits among them, not all, but as many as were moderately well acquainted with farming and so could make a living,—and the rest he used. This he did also in the case of the rest of his soldiers. Those who were overbold and able to cause some great evil he took away from Italy in order that they might not raise an insurrection by being left behind there; and in Africa he was glad to employ different men on different pretexts, for while he was making away with his opponents through their work, he at the same time got rid of them. Though he was the kindliest of men and most frequently did favors of various sorts for his soldiers and others, he bitterly hated those given to uprisings and punished them with extreme severity.

This he did in that year in which he ruled as dictator really for the second time and the consuls were said to be Calenus and Vatinius, appointed near the close of the season.[-56-] He next crossed over into, although winter had set in. And he had no little success when, somewhat later, he made an unlooked for attack on his opponents. On all occasions he accomplished a great deal by his rapidity and the unexpectedness of his expeditions, so that if any one should try to study out what it was that made him so superior to his contemporaries in warfare, he would find by careful comparison that there was nothing more striking than these two characteristics. Africa had not been friendly to Caesar formerly, but after Curio's death it became entirely hostile. Affairs were in the hands of Varus and Juba, and furthermore Cato, Scipio, and their followers had taken refuge there simultaneously, as I have stated. After this they made common cause in the war, trained the land forces, and making descents by sea upon Sicily and Sardinia they harassed the cities and brought back ships from which they obtained[82] arms andiron besides, which alone they lacked. Finally they reached such a condition of readiness and disposition that, as no army opposed them and Caesar delayed in Egypt and the capital, they despatched Pompey to Spain. On learning that the peninsula was in revolt they thought that the people would readily receive him as being the son of Pompey the Great; and while he made preparations to occupy Spain in a short time and set out from there to the capital, the others were getting ready to make the voyage to Italy. [-57-] At the start they experienced a slight delay, due to a dispute between Varus and Scipio about the leadership because the former had held sway for a longer time in these regions, and also Juba, elated by his victory, demanded that he should have first place. But Scipio and Cato reached an agreement as being far in advance of them all, the former in esteem, the latter in understanding, and won over the rest, persuading them to entrust everything to Scipio. Cato, who might have led the forces on equal terms with him or even alone, refused, first because he thought it a most injurious course in the actual state of affairs, and second, because he was inferior to the other in political renown. For he saw that in military matters the principle of preference to ex-magistrates as a matter of course had especial force, and therefore he willingly yielded him the command and furthermore delivered to him the troops that he had brought there. After this Cato made a request for Utica, which was suspected of favoring Caesar's cause and had come near having its citizens removed by the others on this account, and he received it to guard; and the whole country and sea in that vicinity was entrusted to his garrisons. The rest Scipio commanded as dictator. His very name was a source of strength to those who sided with him, since by some strange, unreasonable hope they believed that no Scipio could meet with misfortune in Africa.

[-58-] Caesar, when he learned this and saw that his own soldiers also were persuaded that it was so and were consequently afraid, took with him as an aid a man of the family of the Scipios who bore that name (he was otherwise known as Salvito)[83]and then made the voyage to Adrymetum, since the neighborhood of Utica was strictly guarded. His unexpected crossing in the winter enabled him to escape detection. When he had left his ship an accident happened to him which, even if some disaster was portended by Heaven, he nevertheless turned to a good omen. Just as he was setting foot on land he slipped, and the soldiers seeing him fall on his face were disheartened and in their chagrin raised an outcry; but he never lost his presence of mind, and stretching out his hands as if he had fallen on purpose he embraced and kissed repeatedly the land, and cried with a shout: "I have thee, Africa!" His next move was an assault upon Adrymetum, from which he was repulsed and moreover driven violently out of his camp. Then he transferred his position to another city called Ruspina, and being received by the inhabitants set up his winter quarters there and made it the base for subsequent warfare.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

43

The following is contained in the Forty-third of Dio's Rome: